In an earlier video I created these Folk Art style houses and in this video, I’m going to show how I added them to a large canvas and created a background. I’m also going to create trees from raffia, paper thread and paper leaves.

I wanted to recycle an old painting that I didn’t think was that great. I like the idea of building up layers and creating texture, so I added dark blue and a lighter blue mixed with green on top of the pink layers of the original painting, letting small patches of the pink show through.

The size of the canvas I’m painting is 50x100cm or 20 x 39 inches. You can, if you wish, scale it down to a smaller size using the same techniques. I use acrylic paints because they dry faster and are easy to use.

You don’t have to be precise about this, just have fun. You can even try using a cloth instead of a paint brush, if that is easier.

I like my paintings to have lots of texture and creating the houses separately allowed me to introduce hand stitches.

I cut around the outline of the houses with a sharp pair of scissors ready to glue them to the background, I’d just created.

To see how I created the letters, see: ‘Faux’ chipboard letters. I glued the letters onto the background using white craft glue.

Next, I made a tree from raffia glued onto the canvas with craft glue and an old brush. I shaped the raffia to look like branches of a tree.

I added leaves to the trees by punching out some leaf shapes first and gluing them in place. I used a range of colours to create contrast.

I created smaller trees using paper thread, gluing in place with craft glue. Keep the shapes simple to fit with the Folk Art style of the painting.

To add stars, I used a stencil, molding paste and a palette knife.

Add a layer of molding paste through the stencil with the palette knife, as shown. You could also use an old credit card, if you don’t have a palette knife.

The molding paste dries white ready for you to paint over it.

I added finishing touches with a dark blue to create shadows under the houses and trees. This helps to blend the houses with the background.

I added smoke coming from the chimneys. This was part of the painting that I found most problematic and kept changing my mind about the direction of the smoke.

After adding the smoke, I decided to paint over it again as I didn’t like it. I then decided I didn’t like the gold lettering and painted over that as well. Only to change my mind again!

You will see in the final version that I changed the direction of the smoke and painted the letters gold again. I still wasn’t entirely happy with the result, but decided to leave it. This often happens when I create a painting that I change my mind several times, but it’s all part of the process.

March 19, 2015 | Comments Off on Folk Art style landscape painting, the final result!

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